Another Lloyd’s insurer, Apollo Underwriters, that is providing cover for the Adani Carmichael project has committed to not renewing or taking on any new policies with the destructive coal project.

The move comes just days after over 1,700 people joined an online rally calling for all Lloyds of London marketplace not to back the controversial project.

Apollo Underwriters is the latest Lloyd’s syndicate to dump Adani and the second of its current insurers to do so, after Aspen Insurance did the same earlier this year.

In a statement provided to Friends of the Earth member group Market Forces, Apollo Underwriters said: “We participate in one construction liability policy in respect of Adani Carmichael. […] This particular policy terminates in September 2021 after which we will no longer provide any insurance cover for this project.”

The statement also said that Apollo had recently declined to participate in an additional policy relating to the “port and rail extension”.

The #StopAdani campaign is now focused on nine Lloyd’s insurers which are refusing to take a position on Adani. You can contact those insurers via Market Forces' website (scroll to the bottom of the page) and ask them not to back Adani's coal mine.

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Adani has now been dumped by its second insurer and its options in the Lloyd’s marketplace are rapidly shrinking as the #StopAdani campaign pushes many of the remaining syndicates to not insure the project in the future. Apollo is the 17th Lloyd’s syndicate to publicly rule out insurance for Adani’s Carmichael project and the 27th major insurance company in total.

Adani claims that it “has the requisite insurance requirements in place”. This may be so for now, but with Lloyd’s insurers retreating left, right and center, Adani must let its investors, bankers and contractors know where exactly it will get the insurance it so badly needs to run its coal mine, rail line and port for the next 5, 10 or 20 years.

Adani had to resort to securing insurance from the Lloyd’s marketplace because its disastrous project has been shunned by most traditional insurance companies. Leaks from Adani’s insurance broker Marsh showed that mainstream insurers Axa, HDI Global and Liberty Mutual abandoned Adani in 2019, and they have promised never to return.

So what happens when the Lloyd’s of London market also refuses to provide it with insurance? Where will Adani get the insurance it needs to operate for decades to come? Who will be forced to bear the risk?

With pressure from the #StopAdani campaign only increasing on the Lloyd’s insurers yet to make a commitment on Adani and the list of insurers restricting their coal underwriting in general continuing to grow, Adani faces the very real prospect of being unable to ensure its climate-wrecking coal mining activities in Australia.

 

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